Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Of Modern Advertising & Women

“We’re
waiting for the day when curvy girls in advertisements won’t make headlines
anymore.”

-Anonymous

While we
ponder over the subject, the latest ads by brands like Biba and Anouk come to
our

mind that instantly light us up. But well, let me ask you rewind a little.
Or rather divert your attention a bit because hello, we still live in an era
where stereotyping gender and races prevail. Quoting a combined analysis of 60+
studies, researchers tried to establish linkages between types of roles played
by women as against their male counterparts over a series of advertisements and
products. The results are amusing:

Women
were 4 times more likely than men to not have a speaking role

Women
were 3 times more likely than men to be presented as a product user
rather than an authority

Women
were 3.5 times more likely than men to be presented at home or in a
domestic environment (vis-à-vis at work)

Women
were 2 times more likely than men to be associated with domestic
products like body care and home goods.

So if this
is the status quo, what is the harm? The hindrance lies in the quest to look
for an answer to the question of whether advertising (and media, so to say)
mirrors the society or molds it. The
answer to this varies through the decades. In the past, till say 1980s,
veterans believed that the media industry thrived due to the societal
representation it held and it received its share of popularity owing to its
relatability with the audience’s daily strides. However, now the landscape has
changed completely. The kind of reach television has earned over the past three
decades has completely overhauled the situation. And this exponential increase
has resulted into a plethora of opportunities for marketers and advertisers. They
now have the power to bring about a change in the society, to up their game as
progressive brands, to differentiate themselves as open and new.

So now there
are Type-A advertisements that simply objectify women and in a way shame the
feminist. Then there Type-B are commercials that are very boldly supporting the
new age independent women of today, and do it very well. And then comes the
third kind, Type-C advertisements that really want to break through the norms
of advertising and become one of the

‘Type-B’ but fail in doing so, partly because
of the misconstrued meaning of feminism and women empowerment.

Of course we
come across a host of Type-A and Type-B adverts and very easily categorize them
as one of the two. However, it is this Type-C category that needs our kind
attention as they work well only until someone points out flaw in them, which
in today’s day and age is as easy as a click of a button.

So let us see some
advertisements of the Type-C category that I would like to call the Disguised
Category.

Amazon - When a Woman Shops

This
advertisement by Amazon was to highlight the reasons why women shop. They call
it a social experiment. The video ran by a few husbands trying to answer what
they expect their wives to buy if given a gift voucher worth Rs.5000, and their
responses ranged from clothes to make-up. The revelation came when the husbands
were in for a shock after their spouses had bought clothes but for their
husbands and kids, and other products that would revive their memories. Hence,
trying to change the notion that women shop to indulge.

What went
wrong?

It’s like
“why repair what is not broken”. Amazon was hinting at changing a notion which
was never wrong. Obviously not all women love to shop, but the advertisement is
in a way trying to demean the ones that do. It is disrespectful for women who
believe in shopping for themselves, and indulging into it. Come on Amazon, you
can’t ask the shopaholics to be apologetic about it. That’s where you get your
revenues from.

Saffola

So this is
not the first time that Saffola depicts a homemaker (always a married woman)

purchasing
their newest product available. The advertisement features these ladies dawning
western clothes having a sense of independence as it depicts them taking daily
decisions for their household which shape the health of the family as against
the earlier researches that concluded that women are rarely shown possessing
the ability to take purchase decisions.

What went
wrong?

This
particular advertisement is flawed in so many ways. To begin with, the series
of advertisements always show a woman only in the role of a homemaker. Is it
because a majority of society believes that household is a woman’s job or are
men incapable of taking it up? Then, is it that problems of the heart,
including high cholesterol and risk of heart attack, are faced by men alone? I
ask this because the commercial never highlights the need of protecting the
women from such cardiac diseases. According to them, women are only supposed to
care for their husband/family and not think of their own health, which in
today’s lifestyle does need a lot of attention. To end with, dear advertiser,
you could have at least added a daughter to the family to be realistic.

Titan Raga

Well to
begin with, of course this is one of the best femvertisements we have seen so
far. Featuring Nimrat Kaur, the commercial shows how the women of today set
their own priorities and make their own choices. The protagonist is a
successful women who broke her relationship when the man tried to bind her by
asking her to quit her job. And we love her for the decision she took

What went
wrong?

The
advertisement indicates that a person (be it a woman or a man) can have only
one of the two: a successful career or a functional relationship. There is a
middle-way which a majority of the people take. And being in a relationship
while focusing on your career is not multitasking. As much as we love the
empowered woman of Titan Raga, we would like you know that had you depicted the
lead being single out of choice rather than because of work pressure, we would
have celebrated it all the more.

The
Superfone Ninja with Aisha

The video
beautifully shows Aisha as a progressive modern woman who is past the

insecurities of her boyfriend leaving her. She is not only attractive but an
extremely smart girl who very well knows how to respond to sexual innuendos
gracefully.

What went
wrong?

One would
think where Micromax went wrong. Well, the hit came when the marketers tried to
project Aisha, the voice app on Superfone Ninja, as the ideal girlfriend that
any guy would wish for. The advert not only tries to stereotype women as being
the ‘jealous’ one but also attempts at strengthening the notion that ‘men only
think of sex’.

Fair & Lovely

Now how can
a talk on feminism and modern advertising be complete without the mention

of
Fair & Lovely. However, if you carefully analyze, this commercial has all
the elements needed in a successful Indian advertisement. A father-daughter relationship
with a healthy discussion between them. The protagonist desiring a nice job and
an own house. A trusted friend who is ready with a solution to all the problems
in this world.

What went
wrong?

The answer
is EVERYTHING. Well yeas it was a healthy discussion but surrounding the topic
of marriage. The fathers of today think beyond the wedding bells and guide
their daughters through the difficulties they face. The fail happened when the
protagonist became ambitious after she became fair. The marketers would not
have even realized how easily they projected that women who have darker skin
colors are not worthy of self-enlightenment and can be enthusiastic about their
careers only after applying their master product. Here I also pity the
advertisers because come on, no amount of marketing can ever make a fairness
cream an inclusive product.

And the list
can go on. However, with 2014 being established as the year of feminist

advertising, or femvertising, we have seen some great work emerging in 2015 and
2016 so far. With campaigns like ‘Share The Load’ by Ariel, ‘You Can Be
Anything’ by Barbie, and Microsoft’s International Women’s Day special ‘Make Whats
Next’, the landscape has never been better. Throughout the past decade,
marketers have raised quite a lot of questions such as what is the position of
women in decision making, are men incapable of being emotional, is it only the
women who are objectified by the media and so on. Whereas, now it’s time we
start providing for solutions. It’s time that the advertisements become more
proactive and encourage the audience to take things in their control.

So in the
era of feminism and change, here is the mantra for successful branding and
marketing:

Be consistent, clear and genuine

While you
try to shift your brand from an anti-feminism or a neutral one to a
pro-feminism one, of course the consistency is bound to break. But remember,
once you have reached the desired spot, you not only need to be true to your
words but also need to stay clear of any confusion that your target customer
may have in perceiving you.

Promote self-worth and internal empowerment

More than
anything, to strike the right chord with your target and eventually convert
their attraction and appreciation towards your brand into purchases, the brand
must focus of empowerment of the mind and soul and not of the body. And when I
say empowerment, not only by way of advertisement of promotions. All the
four/seven Ps of the marketing strategy need to be altered to be inclusive not
only of the sexes but of races, religion and distinguished human behavior.

Build an emotional connect

Tell your
consumers that you not only understand their struggle but stand with them while
they face those hurdles. No this is not sympathizing, but empathizing with the
target market to induce a pull effect towards brand connect and loyalty.

So all you
marketers out there; buck-up, because the audience is waiting for revamped,
renewed and real Modern Advertisement which breaks the barriers not only for
creativity but for the community, society and world at large

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Launched in April 2009, Markathon is the monthly Marketing magazine released by the Marketing Club of IIM Shillong and was the brainchild of Asit Jain, Saurav Bagchi, Dilpreet Singh, Ritul Singh, Pranab Talukdar & Soumyasanta Roy. The current office bearers are Ashok A, Kamalpreet Saluja, Pallavi, Prateek Gaurav, Shashank Singh Tomar, Sushree Tripathy, Swikruti Panda and Vaibhav Annam. This is the first monthly B-School marketing magazine which is circulated in over 50 B-Schools in India and abroad and has a reader base of over 5000. Made available in a free-to-distribute electronic format, it includes articles which cover a plethora of marketing topics and also has an ad designing competition. Markathon aims to deconstruct marketing jargons to make the subject more accessible to students. Interviews of corporate and academic stalwarts is a regular feature. The issues are characterized by rich images, detailed styling and the cover pages are especially remarkable and lend identity to the whole issue.